A South London scaffolding firm has lost its licence to run commercial vehicles after allowing a ‘seriously unroadworthy’ vehicle to be used.

The industry regulator said that Mitcham-based Knight Scaffolding Ltd deserved to go out of business.

Nick Denton, traffic commissioner for London and the southeast, revoked Knight Scaffolding’s vehicle operating licence after finding that its director, Thomas Knight, had failed to comply with vehicle and driver safety standards.

During a public inquiry in Eastbourne last month, Mr Denton heard about various failings by the company, including:

the operation of a vehicle without an MoT

the issue of a safety critical prohibition to a vehicle due to mechanical issues, including three underinflated tyres and an insecure load

the illegal use of a second vehicle– the company is only licensed to run one vehicle

a £4,000 fine by City of London magistrates on 17th August for various traffic offences

vehicles not being given routine safety inspections – over the course of 12 months, only one inspection had taken place, despite a commitment to do so every eight weeks.

During the inquiry, Mr Knight accepted that he had not kept up to date with paperwork or compliance matters and had instead focused on getting business and carrying out scaffolding work.

The traffic commissioner noted that Mr Knight had failed to attend new operator seminars organised by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA). “Had he attended any of them, he might have understood what his compliance responsibilities were and taken the necessary corrective action,” the regulator said.

Mr Knight said he realised he needed additional support to look after the transport side of the business but Mr Denton criticised his lack of action in getting that assistance and continued non-compliance on drivers’ hours and maintenance record keeping.

“More than three months on from the stop and a month on from the company’s conviction, he has done nothing concrete to acquire such help. Because Mr Knight has taken so little effective action to improve compliance [since 17th June], I can have little confidence that he will comply in the future.”